Rosenblum and Heller Featured in Dept. of English Presentations

Faculty members Mathew Rosenblum and Michael Heller will each participate in interdisciplinary presentations by the Department of English during the month of September.

Rosenblum and digital media artist Sharlene Bamboat will present an artist discussion on Tuesday, September 12, 7-8:30 p.m. in Cathedral of Learning 501 English Commons Room. The discussion is titled In Search of Lost Homes: Mixed Media, Migration, and Memory. Working within different genres, these two artists share the same pursuit in their developing projects: to represent diasporas that are personal, yet elusive. Their work takes us to the Ukraine, Pakistan, Canada, and New York, but remains present in the production of their art. Rosenblum and Bamboat will talk us through the process of working against the consequence of memory, which is always fading and fictionalizing. This event is open to public and is supported by Global Studies.

Heller will be part of a panel discussion titled Blues and Verse taking place on Thursday, September 14, 6:30-8 p.m. at Cathedral of Learning, 501 English Commons Area. Blues and Verse focuses on the legacy of the blues in African American poetics. Two poet-scholars, Chiyuma Elliott (Berkeley) and Derrick Harriell (University of Mississippi) will open conversation about blues that explores how this musical tradition challenges the boundaries between scholarship and art, text and sound. With additional responses from Michael Heller of the Department of Music and Lauren Russell from the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, Blues and Verse asks us to consider what is possible if we openly discuss how history and critical reading inspires artistic creation. This event is open to the public.